Edmunds, 15, has avoided skating directly against the competition’s big names in her first international appearance at the senior level by getting drawn into the second of five groups.

Reigning champion Yuna Kim of South Korea goes in the third group of five skaters after action begins at 9 a.m. ET. The final pairing — the Group of Death — includes four of the world’s biggest names: Mao Asada, Carolina Kostner, Yulia Lipnitskaya and Ashley Wagner.

Edmunds, an Archbishop Mitty sophomore, plans to skate the same programs that she did at the U.S. championships last month when she finished second. Those two performances vaulted her into the spotlight and onto the Olympic team.

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But Edmunds has to overcome the perception issue in skating. She is a virtual unknown to international judges at the sport’s highest level. Edmunds must pass muster in the more subjective scores for artistry that remain part of a revamped — and confusing — judging system.

Most of the attention over the next two nights will center on whether South Korea’s Kim — known as Queen Yuna — becomes the third woman to win gold medals in consecutive Olympics.

She would join Sonja Henie and Katarina Witt as decorated Olympic champions who successfully defended their titles. The current reigning world champion had no equal in Vancouver four years ago.

That is expected to change Wednesday with the Olympic debut of another 15-year-old, the breathtaking Russian Lipnitsaya.

She is out to become the second youngest Olympic champion in history after Tara Lipinski, who stunned Michelle Kwan in Nagano in 1998.

The current European champion won both the short program and long program at last week’s team competition, catapulting her to instant stardom in Russia. She left Sochi along the Black Sea to train in isolation in Moscow to prepare for one of the Olympics’ centerpiece events.

“Everyone has a chance at winning it,” Edmunds said when asked about Lipnitskaya. “Everyone has different natural talents. Yulia’s flexibility works for her, but everyone has a chance.”

The skaters with the best chance include Japan’s Asada, the runner-up to Kim in Vancouver. Asada won the Grand Prix Finale in December but was second to Lipnitskaya in the team competition short program.

Another competitor to watch is Italy’s Kostner, a stylist skater who has been among the best for years. She is a five-time European champion and the 2012 world gold medalist. Kostner has won five medals at world championships.

But she was ninth at the 2006 Turin Games and a woeful 16th in Vancouver.

“I have a strange feeling and I do not know what to expect, especially since it did not go so well for me” in previous Olympics, Kostner told reporters.

Lipnitskaya ended Kostner’s European title streak in January.

“Yulia is a machine,” U.S. champion Gracie Gold said. “When it comes down to competition, it’s not always about the best skater; it’s about who skates the best in that competition. We’re just going to try to beat her at her own game and on her own turf and at the end, leave everything out on the ice.”

The three Americans aren’t medal favorites though among the world’s elite. Gold, who late last year joined renowned coach Frank Carroll in Los Angeles, has blossomed.

Two-time U.S. champion Wagner has been her country’s top skater since Vancouver when she just missed making the team. But a recent stumble at the U.S. championships has left doubts in the minds of some analysts.

American skating officials selected Wagner for the Olympic team although she was fourth at the championships.

“Those two nights at nationals didn’t reflect me overall as a skater,” said Wagner, who redeemed herself with a solid short program last week in team competition.

Edmunds is considered too inexperienced to command attention in Sochi. That kind of talk doesn’t dissuade the spunky teen.

For anyone who thinks she peaked at the U.S. championships, Edmunds has a counter: